dragonbreathpress My random thoughts on rocks, bicycling and other out-door actvities, as well as father's rights and the occassional rant

Archive for the ‘Black Bute Lake’ Tag

The morning of Saturday, September 24, 2011 started the way that Justin and I prefer – with a tasty tamale from Montoya’s stand at the Davis Farmers Market. After buying more provisions, Justin and I headed home packed and went to pick up his best friend, Jasper (at least a third generation rock aficionado). Another friend of Justin’s and his dad were supposed to join us, but had to cancel a few days ago.

We headed north on Highway 113, and then I-5 to the Newgrass sounds of Railroad Earth (I always find jam-bands to be excellent driving music). North of Woodland, out of reach of the Delta Breeze, the temperatures climbed steadily, but less so than would have been the case just one day earlier. The obscuring haze, obscuring the Coast Range and Sutter Buttes last month on our trip to Trinidad, was still present. I imagine it will be, until a good rip-roaring wind or a cleansing rain.

After around an hour an a half, at Orland, we turned west on Highway 32 for another short jaunt. During a ten-minute delay, due to road construction, I entertained myself by watching the darting dragonflies (variegated meadowhawks) along the roadway. After the wait, we were guided through the cone-slalom by a pilot car. Along the three miles of “construction zone,” I saw maybe a half-dozen ten- to fifty-yard stretches actually being repaved. Oh well.

When we reached the lake, it was in the upper 80s, which was a pleasant change from the trip a little more than two years ago, when we’d roasted in 105-degree weather. Happy to have missed a repeat by a day, I took a short detour to see the dam and the actual Black Butte.

The dam and the view of the lake’s name-sake were nice, but I was highly distracted by the abudance of dragonflies: dozens of variegated meadowhawks, flitted and landed on bushes, some even posing for pictures. I also saw about a half-dozen black saddlebags and two common green darners, but of course, these species did not land or pose for pictures (one of these days… I got close to photographing a California darner twice this year, but that’s another story).

We had gone up with directions to a couple of new places to look, but none panned out. The outlet of Stony Creek below the dam was running too high to expose any rocks. Other creek-beds, though dry and showing a good deal of rock, were well-posted with “No Parking” and “No Trespassing” signs. I stand firm in my belief that private land-owners are at least as responsible in restricting rock-hound access as the much-maligned “Enviros.” In the interest of full disclosure, I am an environmentalist, though not an extremist. I contend that environmentalist are the only thing that stands between big business and a fully-paved and fenced world – which would make rock-hounding difficult at best. In any case, that is my personal opinion, and I know I won’t change the minds of my conservative friends in the rock-hounding community, so please keep your flame-mail in the draft folder, as it will not change my mind either.

Whew! Anyway. Back to rocks. Due to the inaccessibility of these sites, for which I hadn’t entertained high hopes anyways, we headed to the old stand-by: Burris Creek Recreation Area. We parked (on verifiably harder ground, this time and proceeded to scrour the rocky creek-bed. This time, I wasn’t just looking for lapidary material, but also searched for material with potential for suiseki. I found a fair number of the typical red, yellow and brown Black Butte jasper, some with nearly orbicular patterns, some with hematite lines and a small amount with agatized fracture-lines. One small piece has small round spots that may be tiny orbs. Time will tell.

While some of the pieces I found have a shape that is suitable for mountain profile suiseki, they are rather beat-up. They are not the slicks one sees the pest pieces, but with proper care and oiling, the might just develop a proper patina. Again, time will tell.

Scouring the hot, dusty creek-bed, I felt the tension from the week rapidly melting away. There is nothing more relaxing than going into nature and playing in the dirt. The only draw-back was the amount of litter I found and carted out. There were beer and whiskey bottles; I collected over 50 spent shot-gun shells of at least eight different types. Personally, I find that to be a scary combination. But come on, hunters. Pick up and pack out your own damn casings. Yes, that is littering, and it is not endearing you to the nature lovers. You may have the right to keep and arm bears, er, bear arms, but littering is not part of that. I have friends who hunt and hate this crap as well, so I imagine that this is the equivalent of rock-hounds who go out and strip a site, ruining it for everyone else. But still, let’s all pick up after ourselves before we lose any more sites to public access.

At one point, an Army Corps of Engineers Ranger (wow! I had no idea there was such a job) rolled up and chatted. He reassured us that rock-hounding here was, indeed, fine, and that the next rainy season would provide more rocks. He wished us good luck and seemed pleased at my trash-abatement efforts. I wish more encounters were like this. Before he left, I also got advice about heading to the western shore of the lake’s southern finger, as the bridge to recreation area was damaged and closed. He assured us that the criss-crossing dirt roads remained on ACOE-controlled land, and that the roads were fine for low-clearance, two-wheel drive vehicles.

After a few more minutes we headed that way. It seemed that the roads crossed and re-crossed, but all headed to only about three places, all of them lake-front. At one point, the road was at a minimum ten-degree slope – to the side – and rather soft, but at a patient driving speed, it held. Within ten minutes, or so, we were at the lake, and parked. We changed for a swim.

While the boys went swimming, and I intended to join them, I became quickly side-tracked by the hundreds of variegated meadowhawks that flitted and buzzed around. While shy, they allowed me to approach if I moved slowly. Even when they flew off, they often returned to their previous perches in under a minute. Yellow-jackets abounded as well, so I stepped carefully. After snapping my fill of pictures of dragonflies and a common buckeye butterfly, while still watching the boys, I went for a dip as well, and found a few more pieces of Black Butte jasper.

We ran out of time, as I needed to return Jasper to his home, but for future trips, it looks like continuing down this dirt road might actually provide access to parts of Stony Creek on future trips (it appears that this is the elusive Black Butte Road). A kayak or raft could be useful as well. So at 5:30, we headed back. The temperature was entirely pleasant – in the high 80s. We stopped for dinner at Round Table in Willows, and returned to Davis by 8:00 at an absolutely lovely 66 degrees.

To see all the pictures (full-sized) of both Black Butte trips I’ve taken, please go to: